MicrostockGroup

up this thread. anything has changed?

Yes well its pretty much the same here. What surprises me is that IS, could have played this one beautyfully, they had it all in the palm of their hand and could by now have had us all as exclusives, had they played it smart with incentives instead of bullying.
Now, well its far too late, damage is done and we probably have got so much invested in other agencies that its no point in even thinking of exclusivity.  I mean whats the point?  FT and SS, are among my best earners.

ROFLMAO!!!   

So sad but true! 

Same here

Did they get rid of the awful "free" image deal?  Have they stopped deactivating unsold images after two years?  I was planning to delete my two year old unsold images to avoid that stuff.  Had my calendar marked. 

the unsold files tab is back, but we can't add pictures to the free section anymore

which could actually be good news, but why don't they announce changes? very fotolia

There was a discussion some time ago on FT forum about the unsold files. I had the impression that you either took their 50 cents and your files went into the free section or you declined payment and removed the 'offending' files yourself.
Not so according to one of the moderators. Moderator ignored the notices, retained files in their portfolio and did not collect 50 cents. Now, of course, the new rule has been introduced that if you have files unsold after 12 months and they have been 'marked up' according to your ranking/exclusivity, then those files will revert to a single basis credit price  until you have sold one of those files more than 5 times; at which point you may return to a basis price of 2, 3, 4 in accordance with your ranking/status. The onus is on the contributor to keep count of the files that become eligible for 'restoration' after 5 sales, should they wish to do so. Needless to say, demotion of any files to single credit status without sales for 12 months, is fully automated and immediately effective!

Actually, Im not too bothered, FT, is still among my best earner and they produce consitantly. lets instead pray, they are not getting sucked in to selling out!!! because we all know who the buyer would be. Dont we?

Sorry Mat. 12 months.

From FT forum:

"Recently, we've been receiving a lot of requests from contributors to
remove underperforming files from their portfolios. Apparently, most
photographers think that there is no chance of selling an image if it
hasn't been downloaded at least once in the last year.

Since then, our product and marketing teams have been working hard on
creating a solution that benefits both contributing artists and
customers alike. Our belief is that if one of your images was accepted
into Fotolia's collection, it is an image that deserves to be sold and
used.

To make your images even more attractive to customers, we're
introducing a new pricing strategy for images that have not been
downloaded in the last 12 months. These images will be priced at
Fotolia's best rates - 1£ for XS, to 10£ for XXL. If your images are
already priced at this level, images in your portfolio will remain
unchanged. Once the affected images are downloaded at least 5 times,
you will be able to set their maximum prices once again.

Along with our other sales and marketing initiatives, we're
anticipating increased sales when this new policy comes into effect
September 1st, 2010.

Best Regards,

Team Fotolia"

Rather than putting images in a bargain bin or giving them away it might make sense to be able to review / update keywords?